If Not For Belief
by stalrua
Summary: "I hardly believe in magic." Three magic beans lead Emma to three different points in time in the Enchanted Forest's past. Can a doubting orphan learn to believe? What is the truth behind the fairytales?


Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own anything having to do with Once Upon A Time.

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**Prologue**

**And A Savior Will Come**

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_Once upon a time, there lived a king and queen in a shining castle. Having defeated and vanquished their enemies after many years of fighting, the kingdom now enjoyed peaceful and content lives. And the king and queen lived happily together until one day their happiness was made complete with the birth of their first child. A daughter, she was the princess and the light of their life._

_But all was not as well as it seemed._

_In a far off corner of the realm, an evil queen held a terrible grudge against the family and plotted for a way to destroy them. She worked for years until finally devising a way to enact her revenge. So one night, the evil queen enacted a curse that swept the country. It consumed the land, displacing every living being into a land with no happy endings, a land without magic._

_The only hope for breaking the curse lay with the king and queen's infant daughter. Sent to the land without magic through a portal in advance, she would find them, returning to break the spell on her twenty-eighth birthday. However, if the princess never returned, her family and her people would be doomed to remain in their cursed existence for all time._

_She was their only chance._

_She was to be the savior._

_But first she had to find them._

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Emma walked.

The wind blew strongly at her back, whipping her hair from its tie to dance and wave in front of her face. It was a cool wind, but she felt a drop of sweat trace down her back nonetheless. She had been walking for most of the day carrying the few possessions that could truly be called hers in a rucksack that was starting to make her shoulders hurt. Her feet ached, too, and she could feel the beginnings of a blister forming on her right heel. It would have been nice to stop and rest, but the light was quickly fading as afternoon drifted into evening and she needed to find a place to stay for the night.

Coming across a motel or inn – preferably one with a restaurant since her food supply had dwindled now to only consist of a stale granola bar – would be nice, but she highly doubted she'd get that lucky. It was far more likely that she'd be sleeping on the side of the road again tonight. The leaves and thick grass made sleeping on the ground tolerable, but the noises that sometimes came from the woods made her uneasy. Yes, a motel would definitely be ideal. She was so tired, but maybe there would be one right over the next hill…

So she walked.

The Millers – that had been the name of her most recent foster family. She'd gone to live with them about six months ago, and everything had been going well; better than well, actually. The couple lived in an upscale neighborhood in a spacious but comfortable house where Emma was able to have her own bedroom and bathroom. During the first few months, they took her to see movies and plays, to visit the zoo and the parks. They would drop her off for school on time and never forgot to pick her up. One weekend, they even took her to the local animal shelter to pick out a dog to adopt. And for the first time in her life, Emma had felt wanted and appreciated.

But one morning, she entered the kitchen to see her foster parents hugging and crying. It had been tears of happiness, but the happiness was for them – not Emma – because her foster mother was pregnant. Emma had been in the same situation once before and had expected a returning trip to the orphanage soon after that day. But she'd be damned if she went back there again. After fourteen years of being passed around from family to family, she would rather sleep on the streets than go back.

So she'd left.

Packed up her belongings, taken a bus as far as the Pennsylvania border, and then started to walk.

That had been three days ago. She was now a good ways into West Virginia with no real idea of where she wanted to end up, only that she wanted to go somewhere else. At least West Virginia made for nice travelling. Rolling hills, lush trees, forests that spanned for miles… the beauty made the isolation not so bad. She'd apparently chosen a road that wasn't travelled often as traffic had been virtually nonexistent all day. Nothing but the woods and the animals and Emma and…

"Hello, dear."

The road had been abandoned. It stretched for a mile behind her and a mile before her with no sign of human existence, so it was a mystery where the stooped, elderly woman on the side of the road had come from. Emma was absolutely sure she had not been there a moment ago, yet there she sat, perched on the edge of stump wearing the kind of smile that grandmothers give their grandchildren when they haven't seen them in a long while.

"Um… hi."

"It's an awfully dreary day for a walk, don't you think?" Indeed, the clouds hung low and heavy in the sky with the promise of an eventual rain.

Emma cocked an eyebrow and eyed the woman. "I suppose so."

"Not the best time to be outside at all."

"Then what are you doing out here?" Not to mention, how did she _get_ all the way out here?

"Oh, it seemed like a good day for a walk." And Emma couldn't prevent the frown that pulled her brows together at the confusing statement. The woman, however, seemed unfazed by her reaction, simply continued speaking. "I woke up this morning and just had that feeling that I needed to go somewhere, and so here I am." She gestured to the stump. "What brings you here, might I ask?"

The furrows on Emma's forehead softened out at the question. "I… you see… my family…" The stammers were typical, and she sighed, unwilling and unsure of how to explain her situation. "I just needed to take a walk."

At that, the woman leapt up, pulling a cane from some unseen place, and began to hobble towards Emma with surprising dexterity. "That's a great thing. Most kids nowadays are glued to their televisions and their computers and their games; they don't have any idea how to function if there's not a screen in front of their face. Spending time outside is a thing of the past, apparently. But you, you're different."

Emma held her ground as the woman stopped a few feet in front of her. She was shorter than she'd appeared when sitting on the stump, her curved back forcing her to bend forward. Even still, she peered up with an uncanny expression before suddenly pointing a finger in Emma's face.

"There's something about you… a certain destiny."

What?

"Excuse me?"

The woman shook her finger. "You heard me, girl. There's something great in your future."

Emma only hoped it was a hotel with a warm bed and a free meal.

The woman withdrew her hand to press the previously-pointed finger to her pursed lips. Tilting her head, she seemed to consider Emma for a moment, even going so far as to scan her eyes from Emma's head to feet and back again. Then, she made a satisfied noise and began to dig in one of her pockets.

"Mmhmm, you're definitely the right one."

Emma was motionless for a second; then she craned her head, trying to see into the deep pockets. "Right what?" But the woman ignored her and continued to dig. "I'm nothing special, honestly. And I doubt I have any 'great destiny' in my future. I'm just an orphan."

"Nonsense…" The woman shifted to rustle through another pocket. "You're exactly who you need to be. Ah ha!" The sudden shout made Emma start. "They can try to hide, but I knew these little suckers were in here somewhere. Alright now, hold out your hand."

Obediently, Emma extended her hand only for three objects to be pressed into them. The woman's hand remained over the items as her other hand hooked the cane over her arm and then reached forward to clasp around Emma's wrist. Emma's eyes shot up, but the woman remained focused on the hand she held. Her skin was soft, papery and thin, but surprisingly warm; pale, wrinkled skin contrasted sharply with tan, firm skin, and then they were separated and Emma was left to look warily at the items in her hand.

Beans.

That was what the woman had given her.

Although they were unlike any bean she'd ever seen before.

Once more, Emma looked up, this time finding a pair of startlingly blue eyes. "Those are for you." The woman nodded towards the beans.

Breakfast was a long time ago and Emma felt her stomach begin to rumble in hunger. Acknowledging the hunger only seemed to make it worse as the ache in her stomach grew to an uncomfortable level. What had the orphanage's matron said? Never look a gift horse in the mouth. Beans were meant to be eaten, right? So with a mental shrug of acquiescence, Emma brought the beans to her mouth only for the woman's cane to connect painfully with her head with a sharp _crack_.

"What the hell?!"

"Those aren't for eating, girl!"

Emma rubbed at the knot already forming, hunger completely forgotten. "They're beans." Unusually large, translucent, strange beans, but beans nonetheless. "What am I supposed to do with them if not eat them?"

"These, my dear, are magic beans."

Magic… beans?

"Oh, right. Let me guess, I'm supposed to plant them so I can grow a beanstalk to a giant's castle in the sky?" She may have been raised in a orphanages and foster homes, but she was still told stories every now and then.

"You could use them for that, but I don't know if any giants exist here anymore so that would most likely just be a waste of a good bean." Oh dear god, Emma was talking to a lunatic. Clearly, this woman was off her rocker and had escaped from some nursing home… or mental institution. "Mind you, those are hard to come by so wasting them would be awful."

Yes, let's not waste the magic beans. Did crazy old ladies that escape from mental institutions really kill people or was that only something that happened in movies? Eyeing the heavy coat that obscured most of the woman's body, Emma decided it might be best to play along so she wouldn't all of a sudden come face to face with a previously hidden weapon of some kind.

"So if these beans aren't only for reaching floating giant castles, what else can they do?"

The woman continued to smile as if she didn't pick up on the underlying sarcasm of Emma's words. "Oh, a great number of things, but those aren't really all that important right now. These beans can be used for so many different things that it's hard to say exactly how you'll use them. Magic is a funny thing." Emma blinked in surprise when the woman suddenly held a finger in her face once more, this time in warning. "But just remember, dear, that all magic comes with a price."

"I hardly believe in magic." Fanciful ideas such as magic and fairytales and princesses and princes had ended long ago when her first foster parents had taken her back. The world was too harsh a place to hold on to the false hope of happy endings.

If possible, the woman's smile grew. "You will, in time."

Emma shook her head. "You know, I'm honestly not sure I need these." She tried to keep her voice polite as she held out her hand to return the legumes. "Unless they can take me to a place where my life isn't a complete disaster, I'd rather not try them out."

"There are far better realms than this one."

The woman's response was soft, so quiet that later Emma would wonder if she'd even heard her properly. "What?" But her question was ignored.

"Like I said, you have a destiny about you. You're meant to do great things, I can tell; perhaps, these beans will help you on your journey."

The only thing she was called to do now was find a suitable place to camp for the night since she'd wasted all this time talking instead of walking. The wind picked up and the light darkened slightly as the clouds thickened. Even the sky was telling her it was time to go.

Time to wrap this up… "I don't want to offend you, but this is crazy."

And it was. A strange woman had turned up on the side of a deserted road offering strange – supposedly magic – beans that would help Emma on some strange journey all in the name of fulfilling some strange destiny. Strange did not fit well into Emma Swan's life. Not at all.

"As crazy as a baby being abandoned in a tree hollow on the side of the road with a boy claiming to have come from a land filled with magic?"

Everything screeched to a halt.

"What did you say?"

"Even the oddest things can be real so long as a person believes."

"Who are you?"

"Use the beans, Emma. When the time is right, you'll know what to do."

"How do you know my name?!"

A very real sense of panic fluttered through her body at the sudden shift in the conversation. This woman knew things about her… things no normal person would know, much less a random one on the side of a road three states away from where she'd lived most of her life. Her heart pounded as she gaped at the woman who continued to smile knowingly back at her.

Emma had just opened her mouth to demand answers when the woman started and turned, staring down the road behind her. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but the woman continued to stare with intense scrutiny. Then, turning just as quick a motion as before, she stepped forwards and leaned in to whisper. "Keep them close; don't let them get the beans."

Startled, Emma backpedaled a few steps. "What the hell are you talking about?" But when the woman didn't respond right away, she shook her head in exasperation. "On second thought, I don't want to know. This is all stupid. Crazy and stupid and I don't want any part of…"

"They're coming for you. They'll come for you, Emma."

The threat – or was it more of a promise? – burned deep in Emma's body and she fell back on an instinctive glare that made her feel like she was more in control of the situation even though she had no idea what the hell was going on. "Who's coming for me?"

But her query fell on deaf ears as the woman's gaze fixed on a point over Emma's shoulder and her expression transformed into one of shock. Alarmed, Emma turned to see a black cloud approaching. It was darker than the clouds overhead and moved too quickly to be a thundercloud. She'd heard of swarms of insects so large that they would cover the entire sky, but remembered that those incidents usually occurred in the more southern states. It swelled and shifted as if it had a mind of its own.

She took a few steps back and scanned her surroundings. Fleeing into the trees would be a logical course of action… if nothing else, they would provide shelter from whatever was approaching. Emma could hear the woman suck in a rattling breath behind her as she considered her choices. Then, a piece of the cloud broke away and she recognized it for what it was – a bird.

Emma let out a relieved bark of laughter and was glad for the lack of audience to witness her panic as her rapid heartbeat began to slow. It was just a flock of birds; most likely a group of Blackpoll Warblers migrating a little too far inland. Nothing to worry about.

Turning back to the still-alarmed woman, Emma made an attempt to reassure her. "It's ok. They're just birds and…"

But then the woman let out a terrified and grating scream.

And even though the flock of birds had just been far away, the sky now darkened with their presence overhead. Based on how quickly the birds had reached them, they should have passed by within moments; however, the flock remained above them. Nervousness crept up real and slimy in her stomach as she watched the fowl circle in the sky.

Another glance at the woman had Emma wishing she hadn't looked in the first place. The cane was abandoned, having fallen to the ground, and the woman's hands were clutched at her mouth which was gaping open in a horrified expression that was mirrored in her eyes. Emma could barely hear the sounds of her mumbling – maybe praying – something in a foreign language.

The birds continued to circle, thousands upon thousands of them silent except for the flapping of their wings as they whirled around each other in a virtual tornado. There were no defining characteristics that Emma could see; despite years of looking at books on animals, she could find nothing that allowed her to identify what type of birds they were. It seemed like they stood there forever – although it couldn't have been more than a few seconds – before a sharp caw rent the air and the world exploded in activity.

The birds wheeled and dove.

Wind surrounded her, wings brushed her face, beaks pulled at her clothes, their cries entered her ears… her every sense was filled with the essence of the birds. She could even detect the faint smell of rotting meat and briefly wondered whether these birds were carrion-eaters that would peck her to death before picking out her eyeballs.

Another scream from the woman tore through the air, closely followed by now-shouted foreign words.

And then the rushing wind swelled, and it felt like all the oxygen in the air had been displaced because suddenly she couldn't breathe. Her lungs burned and there was an unbearable pressure mounting in her skull. Pressing her hands to her temples, Emma tried to focus and find a way out of the wind and wings that swirled around her. She didn't know what the hell was going on; she only knew she needed to get the hell out of there. The few stumbling steps were a valiant attempt considering she couldn't breathe, but then the darkness was closing in and she was falling.

She was on the ground.

"Emma…"

Was she dying?

She didn't want to die…

"You have to believe."

The woman's voice cut through the rush of noise as clearly as if she were speaking it directly into Emma's ear even though there was no one close to her. But she couldn't hold on any longer. The pressure increased once more and then she succumbed to the darkness that bled in from the edges of her vision, the beans still clutched tight in her fist.

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**I couldn't get the idea for this story out of my head so I had to get it started. New chapters for this one will come slowly for a while because I'm dedicated to "I'll Ask For The Sea" right now and will be updating that one more regularly, but I assure you – the updates will come.**

**If this story pans out like I'm imagining, it'll be a long one, so get ready!**

**Thanks for reading! Reviews are much appreciated :)**


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